Sweden & Norway Map 1855 Colton Atlas Print - Sweden, Norway, Stockholm, Oslo

This lithograph by Joseph Hutchins Colton, published in New York in 1855, gives a detailed overview of Sweden and Norway within the firm's strapwork border. The catalog calls it a detailed mapping of the Scandinavian Peninsula from the premier American commercial cartographic firm of the mid-nineteenth century. The map shows the complex coastal geography of both countries and records the deep fjords of the Norwegian shore. The sheet has the bold coloring and decorative border typical of the Colton atlases, and it offers the American view of the two kingdoms that were then joined under a single crown. The sheet is a clean and legible piece of American commercial mapmaking, and its border makes it an attractive object as well as a useful map.

Joseph Hutchins Colton lived from 1800 to 1893 and was a Massachusetts native. He did not start in the map trade but worked in a general store from 1816 to 1829 and then as a night clerk at the United States Post Office in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1830 he was in New York City, where he set up his publishing business a year later. His first printed item is dated 1833, a reprint of David Burr's map of the state of New York, and in 1839 he began issuing the Western Tourist and Emigrant's Guide. In his first decade he relied on copyrights bought from other map makers.

Anyone fond of American atlas maps, a family with roots in Sweden or Norway, or a lover of bold nineteenth-century coloring will find a lasting gift here. TheMapVault's Tallis map of the same two kingdoms is full of scenes, whereas this Colton lithograph is a plain and orderly American map. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print. It would suit a study, a hall or a library.